Greg J. Smith is a Toronto-based designer and researcher with interests in media theory and digital culture. Extending from a background in architecture, his research considers how contemporary information paradigms affect representational and spatial systems. Greg is a designer at Mission Specialist and is a managing editor of the digital arts publication Vague Terrain. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications including: Creative Applications, Current Intelligence, Rhizome, Vectors and the Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics.

Greg has presented work at venues and institutions including EYEO Festival (Minneapolis), the Western Front (Vancouver), DIY Citizenship (Toronto), Medialab-Prado (Madrid) and Postopolis! LA. He is an adjunct instructor in the CCIT program (University of Toronto/Sheridan College) and has taught courses for CSMM (McMaster University) and OCAD University.

a networked data visualization of the most-linked-to 50 blogs & their interconnections. each arrow represents a hypertext link that was made sometime in the past days. those links can be considered as 'votes' in an endless global popularity poll. many blogs vote for each other: 'blogrolling'. some top-50 sites do not have any links from the others, usually because they are big in Japan, China, or Europe, regions still relatively new to the phenomenon.
see also blogviz & weblog conversations & mydensity.
[newyorkmetro.com|thnkx

Quite possibly the most practical video game of the year. It is a nonviolent strategy game where events have been taken directly from our contemporary history and players must overcome mass conflict using practical (read: nonviolent) techniques and abstract planning savvy. If you're not ready to rise up just yet then it may be prudent to play this while you remain sedentary.

A simultaneous concert & film performance that uses data as its material & theme, highlighting the ways in which data shapes our understanding of the world. Video images of landscapes are progressively abstracted into a language of data. facts, figures & diagrams are used in a graphic montage. the data is derived from the natural world, from global systems such as economics & from research mathematics.
[ryojiikeda.com|via dataisnature.com]

a data visualization machine that erodes rivers, canyons & valleys driven by online search queries. search requests get inscribed in a block of PU-foam (75cm x 75cm x 10cm) by a 3D milling-machine.
the search queries are interpreted as eroding forces on the surface of the landscape & used as energy impulses that move the milling-head steps forward. activity removes material, inactivity keeps it. in times with less activity (e.g. night hours) the machine works slow & at peak times (e.g. midday) the machine works very fast & hectically. the space/time sculpture embodies an not existing place, made visible by the users of the search-engine. see also email erosion & sexual behavior totems.
[no-surprises.de]

An interactive art installation built in a new children's hospital. as people move in front of this display they affect ripples of virtual water colours. the more they move, the faster the colours change, encouraging children to be more active & playful. when there is no or little activity in front of the waterfall, the display phases simple rainbow colors & ripples lightly. [setpixel.com]